Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries and Balsamic Reduction

I saw this recipe over at The Pioneeer Woman and decided to give it a try. I love the combination of flavors, especially the tartness from the cranberries. I also think it's an impressive side dish to serve with just about anything. Did you notice that I keep posting cranberry recipes? I'm obsessed. hehe :) Oh, and a quick note... remember to drizzle on the Balsamic reduction. It's very sweet so you will want to add it to taste.

And Happy New Year everyone! I wanted to share my new year resolution with everyone, but I really don't have just one big resolution. So instead I came up with a list of little things I want to do this year. 

Here we go!

1. Make curtains for the living room
2. Make sushi
3. Grow as many tomatoes as possible so that I can make sauces for the winter
4. Take a small road trip with hubs, Mimi, and Emmett
5. Drink more water
6. Become more organized... come up with a daily routine
7. Sew an outfit for Mimi or Emmett... or a blanket, toy.... anything at all
8. Repurpose my old clothing
9. Cook a lobster
10. Buy a new camera and learn how to use it
11. Buy a domain and create a new banner
12. Do something spontaneous, crazy, wacky, insane.... or just something a little different :)
13. Paint the trim in the house.... oh my gosh we've been putting that off forever
14. Make croissants (yikes...)
15. Backup, organize, etc. my computer (especially the pics and videos)
16. Teach Mimi some French words
17. Learn to like..... *gulp*..... parsnips... bleck!
18. Make a fancy dinner and invite my parents over
19. Stop procrastinating
20. Learn more about meat... I mean thoroughly understand the different cuts of meat, the names, everything.... buy a book and study it

I REALLY wanted to add "make pottery" to the list because it's really a dream of mine, but that's an expensive hobby so I'm going to wait on that one (especially since I plan to work on my photography skills). hehe But hey... even if I accomplish nothing on this list, it will still be a great year. I am surrounded by my family and that makes each year amazing.

Happy New Year everyone!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries and Balsamic Reduction
Serving Size = 16 (I cut this down to 3 servings)
Original Recipe: The Pioneer Woman

• 3 lbs Brussels Sprouts
• 1/2 cup Olive Oil (EVOO)
• Salt, to taste
• 1 cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar (I will reduce this to 1/4 cup next time, see the note below)
• 1 cup dried cranberries (I used fresh and increased the amount a bit)

Note: You could leave the sugar out of the reduction and it would work. I think it should be sweet, so I would add some but I think next time I will reduce the sugar by at least half.

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Clean and trim the Brussels sprouts. Place onto a baking sheet (or dish) and toss with some oil. Sprinkle on just a bit of salt. Roast for about 30 minutes, or until brown.
2. In the meantime, start the reduction. In a medium saucepan mix together the vinegar and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook until very thick (about 15 - 20 minutes). Click here for a picture of reduced Balsamic.
3. When the Brussels sprouts are done, I throw the cranberries on top of them and let them cook 1 additional minute just to warm them up (the cranberries will break a bit).
4. Before serving, drizzle on the reduction to taste. 

Linking to: Mouthwatering Monday, Hearth and Soul, This Week's Cravings, Tuesdays at the Table

Baby Emmett is here!!

Emmett has finally arrived! Here is a run down of the labor and delivery, no gross details, promise! :)

On Saturday, hubs, Mimi and I decided to go out of town for one last trip before Emmett arrived. As soon as we arrived at our destination we headed straight to the food. I inhaled a giant sandwich, fries, doughnuts, sweets drinks and anything else in sight. I decided since this was my last time out that I would be bad and enjoy as much food as possible. After the pig fest, we headed over to do some shopping. Unfortunately, this was cut short because I was having random contractions, which I guessed was false labor and we ended up going home. All evening I was fine, so we cleaned the house a bit and sat around.

Move forward to 5am when I wake up with cramps. My first thought was that I had food poisoning. The amount of junk I ate would make anyone ill. But nope! As soon as I stood up out of bed I knew I was in labor and the contractions slowly started. By 8am, I decided they were a bit strong so it was time to head to the hospital to be safe. I guessed I was 5 cm maybe.

And then a train happened. And we sat and waited for the train to pass, but I was still fine.

Destination reached. We were at the hospital but we didn't go to the ER (apparently we should have) and instead tried to find the OB/GYN. We couldn't find it. At least 15 mins later, and a mountain of stress, we FINALLY found it.  The nurses were in shock that I didn't pre-register (? I didn't know about this) and they were hesitating on trying to find a room for me. I started to panic because it hadn't crossed my mind that in the world's smallest town I wouldn't be able to get a room (it was empty by the way).

Move forward again and Ms. Awesome Nurse appears. She tells them to put me into room such-and-such and then wants to get my weight. Pause because I am having a contraction and cannot move. Then I'm weighed and moved to the room. The nurse, not Ms. Awesome Nurse, but another one, checks me and I am 8 cm. The nurses start to panic and hook me up as quickly as possible to their machines. They call my doc, but she is out so they call the backup. At this point, still panicked over the room situation, I'm getting more stressed over the news but I didn't for ONE SECOND believe I was 8 cm. No way. No possible. Not enough pain. I've read about this and it would be unbearable at this point. So I knew they messed up and the max I could be was 6 cm (I've had a long history of nurses making mistakes). Of course, I didn't tell them this because I didn't want angry nurses. Then I tell them that I want an epidural because in my mind I knew that even though the contractions weren't THAT bad they would get MUCH, MUCH worse and I had a long way to go. And hubs wasn't around at the time because he was filling out forms for me or else he would have told me that the epidural was a waste of time. And I was stressed. Did I say that already?

Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist is about to walk into surgery and the backup won't answer. I panic big time now. What felt like 10,000 years later the anesthesiologist calls and says he's paused the surgery and will come up for my epidural. So he appears and is super nice, but talks forever about the medicine. I would say we sat with him for about 40 mins total, at least. After finally getting the epidural, my legs start to go numb and as soon as the first contraction is gone and the second is gone.... the shot worked.... the nurse says, "She's ready to deliver."

What??!! I even told them they were wrong at this point, I couldn't possibly be that far along and ready to deliver. I was not ever in enough pain to be that close to delivering a baby. But the doc shows up, the first time I've even seen him, and baby Emmett arrives.

So basically, the epidural saved me minutes of pain and resulted in weeks of back pain. Not to mention Mr. So-and-So had to have his surgery paused.

Dear Mr. So-and-So,
I'm sorry if my epidural non-emergency resulted in your death.

Lesson learned? Yep! In the future, I will have an all natural child birth because I can, without a doubt, do it and it's not as bad as everyone said it would be. At all. Although it does differ from person to person. And even though it wasn't completely natural, I still waited until I was probably 9 cm to get the epidural (just guessing) and I feel very proud. Normally, I would be full of regret for my decision, but I'm not. I really feel like I accomplished something and I feel proud for knowing that I CAN do this and in the future I plan to. You live and learn, that's just life.

Overall, great experience, the nurse I had was AMAZING, which I figured out after the delivery. She made the entire hospital stay more pleasant. I was back on my feet almost immediately and didn't need any medicine. I left the hospital early and we're all healthy, happy and at home.

Updates!
I think I forgot to add the weight and such!! 7 lbs, 4 oz, 23 inches long. :)
And back pain update. Turns out I did not have weeks of back pain, only a few days of mild pain. Yay!

A Blog is Born - Baby Talk

Drum roll please!!

I've started a second blog! Yay!!

Elsa's Baby Talk

Here is the address: http://elsasbabytalk.blogspot.com/

(both addresses are also listed in "About Me" off to the right)

Elsa's Cooking Diary will be my main blog, but this new blog will allow me to do family product reviews and discuss family matters in more detail without interfering with my recipes. It's a bit of a challenge to discuss diapers and then talk about food. :) I will also try to post give-aways as I find them (kids movies, cloth diapers, diaper bags, etc). Of course, there will be some overlap. Nothing will change on my food blog, I will still go on and on about my family and then discuss food, like always. But where my cooking blog has general family talk and food, my second blog will have specific family talk. So where baby shampoo would be a brief mention on my cooking blog, I will discuss all of the reason why I love it on my baby blog.

Elsa's Cooking Diary will still have kid friendly food though. Baby talk will not have a food section.

Thanks for stopping by and please check out the new blog! :)

The Art and Science of Culinary Preparation - Review

I'm finally on the road to recovery - thank goodness!! My illness lasted a little over a week but it sure felt longer. My husband watched our toddler non-stop the entire time. The man never had a break and I felt so sorry for him after a while. Our Mimi can be a bit of a handful to say the least, but he did great (as I expected, of course). I have no idea what I would do without him. How do single parents take care of their kids when they are sick???? How can you watch your child when you can't get out of bed???? It's a mystery to me, but I am impressed!

In other news, baby number two is kicking around like crazy so all seems well. When we had our ultrasound to find out the sex, we also checked every.single.organ. It was intense. I can tell you that I did not have as thorough of an ultrasound with Mimi. But I'm super paranoid when it comes to my kids health, so this was a relief to me. By the way, as I type this Mimi is trying to put tiny sunglasses on my head, so I apologize for any weird typos that might occur.


Ok, now onto the point of my point. The Art and Science of Culinary Preparation by Jerald Chesser. I love.love.love this book. When I'm not sure what to read, I pick this book up every single time. It is definitely for the more serious cook since it covers many topics that probably wouldn't appeal to most, such as the business side of cooking. There are recipes, but not many. I originally bought this book based on a recommendation from Girlichef (if you haven't been to her blog then you are seriously missing out). She went to culinary school (my DREAM in life) so she was the first person I thought of when I wanted a book that would challenge and move me forward. Did I mention my dream of going to culinary school? I did?? Anyway, if you are serious about cooking then check out this book, if not, then it will be a big disappointment.

And now Mimi is spilling water on the floor and saying "Dink Dink" (drink) and "Bobbie Bobbie" (Barbie). So I'm off to clean up messes and watch Barbie movies. Aren't you jealous??? hahaha

Dishes, Lamps and Babies

My husband is amazing, wonderful, great, super, awesome. Look at the STUNNING dishes he brought back from Algeria? Oh yes, I didn't mention this, but my husband went back to Algeria to visit his family. It was rough, but we spoke daily, chatted and had webcams so that helped. Anyway, when he came home he brought a ton of gifts (I'll post more pics later, one of which is an equally stunning tea set). I love that he knows my taste in everything perfectly.

A Moroccan lantern that holds a tiny candle. I love it!!

A shawl. I adore the pattern on here. It's definitely my new favorite. Even though it's summer and 100 degrees, I WILL wear this shawl.

And this, well, it has nothing to do with Algeria. I went to a fair over the weekend and found this adorable handmade oil lamp. I couldn't pass it up. My parents have tons of oil lamps in their house, so naturally I inherited the need for oil lamps as well. :)

And finally.... IT'S A BOY!!!!

We're pretty excited, but to be honest, I really thought I was pregnant with another girl. Apparently my "mother's intuition" is completely off. I even had a name picked out, Trudy (I've actually had this name picked out for a while though). Of course, if we have more children than I can always use that name so I will save it for now. As for boy names, well, I was so confident that this was a girl that I barely even glanced at boy names. I want something strong and classic though. I've spent countless hours searching, but I've come up with nothing. I think finding the right name is going to be a challenge.

Oh Baby! A New Addition to the Family!

Hello!

I wanted to stop and make a special announcement to all of my blogging friends out there. You may have noticed the lack of recipe posts over the last few months. Well, it turns out that my husband and I are expecting our 2nd child in the fall. We are beyond excited and so far everything is perfect. The baby seems as healthy as can be, and we will find out the sex in a week or so (of course I will announce it). Unfortunately, nausea took over for a while and cooking was not one of my favorite things in life. I am VERY lucky though because I only had mild nausea and now that I'm in my second trimester, it is completely gone. I didn't have exhaustion hardly at all, and I really have no other complaints. Well, except that my hormones did go crazy and I was a bit of a disaster for a while. Sorry to everyone out there that had to deal with that (mostly my husband). hehe

One thing I want to focus on though is eating healthy during this pregnancy. I took advantage of my pregnancy the first time around and I oinked down WAY more ice cream sundaes than I care to admit to. As a result, I had lots of weight gain and then had to lose it all. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping I can show some self control this time around!! hehe So far so good though, I spent my first trimester eating more strawberries than you can possibly imagine. And in my second trimester, I seem to want peanuts.

Anyway, I will be posting here more often now and I'll keep you updated on my pregnancy! And yes, I DO plan on being completely annoying and mentioning my pregnancy more often than one should on a cooking blog!! :)

PS: Did you notice the Winnie the Pooh rattle? I am convinced that I cannot live without this item. When my daughter Mimi was tiny, we took her to the store to pick out a toy. We showed her tons of toys and this was the only one she smiled at. And she loved that thing forever (although today she couldn't care less). I thought we lost it in the move several months ago, but my wonderful husband found it. I am so excited to give this to baby number 2.

- Elsa

Holiday Food Pictures

My parent's tree.

I wanted to do a quick holiday picture post! We go to my parent's house for Christmas Eve and Christmas. We don't have a Christmas dinner, we just have a buffet of random food for people choose from. Everyone in the family brings a few dishes, but my parents do the majority of the cooking. Here are a few food pictures! I will post a jam cookie recipe later. ;)

Cornflake cookies.

Sugar cookies.

Pecan pie bars.

Oreo cookie/white chocolate balls, chocolate covered pretzels,
peanut butter balls, and peanut butter fudge (I think).

Oreo cookie/white chocolate balls.

Rosemary, olive and cheese tree.
The serving dish is great. You place ice in the bottom to keep
everything cold.

Pumpkin bread.

Oatmeal cream sandwich cookies. 

Meatballs made with a jam sauce. I know, jam sounds horrible, but it's yummy! 

Eggs.

Tuna ball with crackers, one of my favorites. 

Seafood couscous salad. 

My dill bread.

Shrimp cocktail.

Pizza!! My toddler was thrilled!

And there's more!

• Roast beef! (Probably the star and I forgot to take a picture.)
• Chewy sugar cookies
• Potato salad
• Nachos and cheese
• Breadsticks
• Veggie tray
• Fruit tray
• Fudge
• Jam cookies (recipe to come!)
• Chocolate fountain with stuff to dip in it

I'm sure I'm missing things but this is all I can remember at the moment. :)

Wednesday Hodgepodge!

My toddler went to bed early tonight, which is both good and bad. Good because I get to muck about --- blogging, TV, Internet, recipes, online shopping, etc. I did rearrange the kitchen a bit though, which was kind of productive, but probably unnecessary. And bad because she'll probably wake up early, which means my husband and I will wake up early. Bleck. It's hard for me to wake up early in the winter. There is nothing to do. The summer is a different story though. I can get up early and weed the garden, or have coffee on my swing and read a book. I love it.

Anyway, Wednesday Hodgepodge time!

1. Share your Christmas Eve Traditions.

I bake cookies with my toddler. Well, not WITH her, mostly I hold her and try to work with one hand. The perfect cookies are selected for Santa, along with a glass of milk --- a very small glass because organic milk is expensive. Sorry Santa! And then my toddler gets to open one gift. We also spend part of the day with my family eating and all that fun stuff.

2. What was the best book you read in 2010? (we're not going to include The Bible here)

Hmmm.... I've read a few good books this year, but not many. Of course, I have a horrible memory so I can't remember what I read this year, and what I read last year. I'll go with..... "My Life in France" by Julia Child, mostly because I had very low expectations when I bought the book. It surprised me though. Great read.

3. Do you have pets and if so do you allow them on the furniture?

No and probably --- which I would eventually regret... which is why I don't have any.

4. What event from 2010 are you most thankful for?

My daughter's 1st birthday. It was great. The cake turned out perfectly, the decorations were cute, everything rocked. See picture below. The cake is ducks swimming in a bucket.

5. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?

Bought a house, cooked a LOT of different meals, had my very own garden and lots of little things. But I'm looking forward to next year and hopefully doing much more. :)

6. Brussels sprouts... friend or foe?

FRIEND! Yummy yummy yummy.

7. Who would you nominate for man/woman of the year?

That honor would go to my amazing, wonderful and talented husband --- this year and every year. He's the best (more on that later).

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I love homemade hot chocolate. I mix together the chocolate, sugar, vanilla and milk. While that heats up I mix the cream and powdered sugar to get whipped cream. Mmm mmm mmm!

Wednesday Hodgepodge - A little bit about me (and Gary)

My daughter is snoozing and I'm waiting for my dough to finish mixing so we can have hamburger buns with our lunch. Since I don't have an "about me" section (yet), I thought this would be a nice glimpse into the world of Elsa. Plus, everyone else is doing it and I must fit in. :)

1. Do you think you're more like your mom or your dad?

Hmm... that's a hard question. My mom is outgoing, not in the least bit shy, loves to cook, read, and is constantly buying kitchen items. My dad is quiet, loves working outdoors, and is very interested in politics. I'm probably an even mix of both. I am shy, quiet, constantly buying things for my kitchen, reading, cooking and working in the garden. I have very little interest in politics (although, I am aware of it's importance) and I'm not sure I would describe myself as outgoing.

2. Do you like roller coasters?

Not even a tiny bit.

3. How did you name your blog and do you now wish you'd thought about it maybe another five minutes before you hit publish? Would you change your blog title if it were not a huge pain in the derriere? (French makes everything sound a little nicer doesn't it?)

I was trying to be creative and I came up with a few ideas, then I realized that my name is original enough. How many "Elsa's cooking" blogs exist? So, I kept it simple, easy to remember and to the point. ;) It's focused on cooking, but it also contains a diary element allowing me to go off topic from time-to-time. 

4. What is the best wedding gift you received? Not married? Didn't get any gifts? Then what is the best wedding gift you've given?

That was a long time ago and I am very forgetful. But the two gifts I remember are my blankets. One is burnt orange and the other is decorative with our names and wedding date on it. I love them both. Maybe that's a good tip for buying wedding gifts. Buy them something they will use daily, such as blankets, so when they do a Wednesday Hodgepodge they will have an answer. :)

5. What is the one bill you most hate to pay?

Honestly, the expected bills don't bother me. My bills are low and I really never think about it. Now, unexpected bills for fixing things such as cars, the yard, the roof, etc. are a bit painful.

6. Is the glass half full or half empty?

Depends on my mood that day. 

7. What is your favorite word? Okay okay. Calm down. How about one of your favorite words?

Tinker. I love tinkering with things. Tinker, tinker, tinker. My dad called me tinker when I was a baby. 

8.  Now, this is where you insert one random thought of your own...maybe something that struck you as funny, something that recently had you scratching your head in confusion, something that annoyed you a teensy bit, something on your to do list, something you are looking forward to, whatever. As long as it is in keeping with the friendly tone we've all come to know and love on Wednesdays then we're good. Don't make me get out my wooden spoon. 

The other day, my husband, daughter (toddler) and I went to the mall. As we were strolling through the mall, music was playing on the speakers and my daughter started to dance. So, naturally, I started to dance with her. Yes, we were dancing through the mall. This is what you become when you're a parent --- embarrassing. You become an embarrassing dork. Don't fight it.

I just got a phone call. Wrong number. Here's the brief conversation:

Me: Hello

Lady: Gary??

Me: No, you have the wrong number.


Who is this Gary and why do we sound exactly the same on the phone??????? hehehe

Bucket List

One of my friends posted a bucket list on her blog and I thought it would be fun to create one as well. Even though I find them kind of depressing it also gets me excited about the future and all of its possibilities.

I want to...

1. Speak French fluently
2. Live in France for a while
3. See the Mayan pyramids
4. Teach a class about the Maya, Inca, and Aztecs
5. Visit all 50 states
6. Make a difference in the world
7. Take a cooking class
8. Become a chef
9. Write a cookbook
10. Learn to sew
11. Have more children - tons more :)
12. Move to a different house with a huge porch
13. Open a restaurant
14. Go to the opera
15. Learn to play the violin
16. Dress up and go to a sci-fi convention (hehe)
17. Open a bookstore/flower shop
18. Get a Master's Degree in Anthropology and in Public Health
19. Become a better public speaker
20. Make homemade tortillas
21. Finish reading "A Picture of Dorian Gray," one of the most boring books I've ever read
22. Pet a giraffe
23. Go on an archaeological dig
24. Read "War and Peace"
25. Put my entire face into a delicious birthday cake
26. Eat fresh seafood in Oregon
27. Eat lobster in Maine
28. Learn how to paint
29. Master Mexican Cuisine
30. Buy only grass fed meat from a local farm
31. Cloth diaper all future babies
32. Get solar power
33. Become more physically active
34. See my child/children grow up and become whatever she/they dream to be
35. Own a navajo rug